Radio’s “To the Best of Our Knowledge” had a good show yesterday on children’s fiction and the weight of the past on a few writers. This is a good show, if you haven’t heard it before.
Dispatch from Minot II
OK, today the WiFi in our encampment works (and what’s a Viking encampment without wireless access?), and I think I can post a few pictures certain to fill you with jealousy over being there while I’m here, at Hostfest, in Minot, North Dakota.
The weather has been ideal–cool and sunny, and consequently the festival is seeing record attendance. Oddly, this seems to be resulting in decreased visitation at our Viking encampment. That’s because we can only be approached through a food court, which looks like this.
If one person stops and stands at some point, all movement becomes impossible for everyone else, so that nobody can get through to us without shoving, which–as you are probably aware–Scandinavians do not do. Continue reading Dispatch from Minot II
Dispatch from Minot
I write to you from Minot, North Dakota. Hostfest begins in a few minutes, so I can’t linger long. The weather is beautiful, and large crowds are expected. I am told there is reasonable chance of survival.
Just got the schedule for my upcoming “Virtual Book Tour.” The information is can be found here.
Catch you later.
Think
What thinking is not. John Piper has written about thinking in a new book. “Knowledge,” he says, “is the fuel of the fire of love for God and man.”
Secularism Is Not the Neutral Ground It Claims To Be
Video of Hunter Baker on “The System Has a Soul: Lectures on Christianity and Secularism”
Are Paperback Original Lesser Works than Hardbacks?
Joanne Kaufman writes about paperbacks for the Wall Street Journal, saying many people prefer hardbacks.
The belief that a paperback original, however worthy, will be given short shrift by reviewers tells part of the story. “Critics pay more attention to hardcovers even if they say they don’t,” said one agent who requested anonymity.
Vanity plays a role, an anonymous publisher tells Ms. Kaufman. “In almost every deal I do, the agent tries to get a contractual hardcover commitment even if the book isn’t written yet and down the road it might become clear that paperback original is the way to go.”
The Sagas of Heidrek, and of Lars the Far-Travelled
Dale Nelson passes on this link to the blog Sacnoth’s Scriptorium, passing on information about the upcoming re-release of Christopher Tolkien’s translation of The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise.
I’m particularly happy about this since HEIDREK’s is my favorite saga, and the first one I read (back when I had to get special dispensation from the college library to check out books there, since I was still in high school). Though it came as a bit of a shock to discover that Heidrek himself was the ‘hero’ of the saga only in the sense of protagonist: a kin-slayer and wife-murderer and generally dangerous and disagreeable person to be around. The most striking character for me was (and is) not Heidrek but his mother, Hervor*, who summons her own dead father from the grave to demand the family heirloom, the cursed sword Tyrfing (made by Durin & Dvalin), which had been buried with him. This scene was one of the first bits of Old Norse lore to be translated into English** at the beginning of the revival of interest in old legends and mythologies and literatures in the mid-18th century. Tolkien fans will probably be more focused on the Riddle-game, which was surely one of Tolkien’s main sources for Gollum’s riddle-game (along with two lays in the ELDER EDDA): one of Gollum’s riddles (“no-legs”) actually appears in one of the HEIDREK manuscripts. There’s also the famous battle between the Goths and the Huns that ends the saga, although this occurs after Heidrek’s day and in fact is set in motion by his children.
In personal news, blogging will be light next week, as I’ll be heading out Monday for my annual migration to Minot, North Dakota for the Norsk Hostfest. I hope to keep you posted to some degree, as I’ll be taking my laptop and they do have WiFi, which sometimes works.
Back next Monday, but I make no promises about posting that day.
Friday Fight: Are They Dancing?
In honor of the cool videos we used to post here on Fridays, labeling them The Friday Fight, I give you this dance scene.
The Versatile Blogger Award
Our friend Meg Moseley has tagged us over at her blog with the coveted Versatile Blogger Award. A Major Award of this caliber does not come without a price. Here’s what we’ve been asked to do:
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass on the award to up to fifteen deserving bloggers.
4. Contact the bloggers you chose for the award.
1. Thank you, Meg.
2. Are there seven things about myself I haven’t told you yet? Is there anything left unrevealed that won’t revolt the public and drive what’s left of our readers away? I can but try.
2.1 I weighed 5 lbs., 6 oz. at birth. I was underweight. In the time since then I have remedied that defect in rather magnificent fashion.
2.2 Technically, by the rules of primogeniture, I am the patriarch of my family, oldest son of the oldest reproducing son in the blood line (assuming you disqualify adoptees). This applies only to the Kenyon branch of the Walkers. My relatives Steven and John Book, who read this blog, come from a different branch, and so miss out on the benefits of my benevolent overlordship.
2.3 I do not care for bacon. Or much of anything smoked, really.
2.4 The first book I ever took out of a library was about early American explorers. I think it was called Explorers All, but I may be mistaken about that.
2.5 I like wristwatches with lots of little dials and functions. However I’ve given up wearing them, because they’re such a pain to keep regulated. (I still wear a watch, just not the complicated kind.)
2.6 I once punched a guy who’s dead now. The two facts are not related. Anyway, he deserved it.
2.7 Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever the hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to eat some chocolate.
3. I shall pass this on, as is my wont, to zero deserving bloggers. Why should I dilute such an honor by sharing it with lesser writers?
4. Done.
Cat Eyes Squirrel
This photo has Going Viral written all over it (which is an ugly cliche serious writers should never use).
The photo was shot by Jim Tiller in Ormond Beach Fla., Wednesday morning, September 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Daytona Beach News-Journal, Jim Tiller)